Natural stone blocks cut from quarries have been used for a number of years to assemble walls of various types, including ornamental walls for landscaping purposes. Natural blocks have unique sizes, differences in shape and differences in appearance. However, construction of walls using such blocks requires significant skill to match, align, and place blocks so that the wall is erected with substantially uniform courses. While such walls provide an attractive ornamental appearance, the cost of quarried stone and the labor to assemble the stone blocks are generally cost prohibitive for most applications.
An attractive, low cost alternative to natural stone blocks are molded concrete blocks. In fact, there are several, perhaps hundreds, of utility and design patents which relate to molded blocks and/or retaining walls made from such blocks. Most prior art walls, however, are constructed from dimensionally identical blocks which can only be positioned in one orientation within the wall. Thus, a wall made from molded or cast blocks does not have the same random and natural appearance of a wall made from natural stone blocks.
Accordingly, there is a need for new and improved molded blocks and block systems and methods for constructing walls that have a more natural appearance than walls constructed using molded blocks, block systems, and molded block methods of the prior art.